Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that US plans to build a missile defence system in eastern Europe would raise the risk of "mutual destruction". Poland and the Czech Republic are keen to allow the US to site missile bases and radars on their territory. Mr Putin spoke a day after threatening to halt involvement with a treaty limiting conventional arms in Europe. "The threat of causing mutual damage and even destruction increases many times," he told Russian media. "This is not just a defence system, this is part of the US nuclear weapons system," the Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying. Mr Putin was speaking after meeting Czech President Vaclav Klaus. Mr Putin has taken a tough line in recent months over the US plans for missile defence... http://news.bbc.co.uk

The United States and its allies raised the prospect on Friday of adapting a U.N. plan for the independence of Serbia's breakaway Kosovo province to address criticism by Russia, which could block the move.Diplomats said it was discussed at NATO talks in Oslo. "The U.S. and others said they were ready to accommodate some concerns about the (Kosovo) Serb minority without compromising the broad principles of the Ahtisaari proposals," said one diplomat after the NATO foreign minister talks. Russia has backed Serbia in vehemently opposing the plan drafted by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, and there was wide recognition at a NATO meeting in Oslo that Serb concerns had to be addressed. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3087879

Poland's prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, rejected EU criticism of a ban on "homosexual propaganda" in schools yesterday, saying that it was not in society's interests to increase the number of gay people. Mr Kaczynski dismissed suggestions that homosexual people faced discrimination in Poland, in a blunt response to an EU parliament vote earlier in the day in which MEPs called for a fact-finding mission to the country to investigate recent anti-gay comments by senior officials. "Nobody is limiting gay rights in Poland," said Mr Kaczynski, leader of the Law and Justice party, which stresses Roman Catholic Values and governs with the small League of Polish Families, which is militantly anti-abortion and anti-gay rights. "However, if we're talking about not having homosexual propaganda in Polish schools, I fully agree with those who feel this way. Such propaganda should not be in schools; it definitely doesn't serve youth well. It's not in the ...http://www.guardian.co.uk/gayrights/story/0,,2066792,00.html

The US economy grew at its weakest pace for four years during the first quarter of 2007, figures from the US Commerce Department show. The news pushed the dollar to record lows of $1.3667 against the euro. US gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annual rate of just 1.3% in the first three months of the year, down from 2.5% in the previous quarter. The Commerce Department blamed a slump in the housing market and America's widening trade gap for the slowdown. US exports declined at a rate of 1.2% in the January to March quarter, while imports rose 2.3%, helping to drag output figures lower. GDP - which measures the value of all goods and services produced in a country - is considered the best measure of the economic health of the US. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6599997.stm

Under English law, the courts have ensured that officials of the state cannot enter a private home without the occupier's permission, unless there is a specific law authorizing it. In principal it sounds like a good way to keep your home your castle. However, the way around this is to make enough specific laws that you might as well keep your door unlocked. A British think tank researched all the different powers agents of the state have to gain entry to homes. There are now 266 different reasons officials can barge in. "Forcible entry" it's called, and if you try to prevent it, there are big fines, and in some cases prison, and ultimately you have to let them in anyway. You have to open your door to everyone from tax inspectors to local clipboard carrying electricity meter inspectors. Still on the books from 1955 is the right to search for materials used to produce "horror comics", perhaps the forerunner of video nasties? ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/27/london/main2734212.shtml?source=RSSattr=World_2734212

The health gap between the lowest and highest paid occupational groups widens in retirement, a study has suggested. A lifetime on a low wage physically ages a person eight years earlier than high earners, researchers found. They followed more than 10,000 British civil servants aged 35 to 55, over a period of 20 years. Physical health declined with age in all groups but most rapidly among those in the lowest occupational grades, the British Medical Journal reported. The employees, working in 20 different departments and from all occupational grades, were surveyed five times between 1985 and 2004. At retirement, despite leaving the civil service, the health gap not only continued but widened. For example, the average physical health of a 70-year-old high earner was similar to the physical health of a low earner around eight years younger. In mid-life, this gap was only 4.5 years....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6595383.stm